19.10.17

See the ISIS Schoolbooks Used to Brainwash Children Into Becoming Next Generation of Jihadists

The textbooks were found in the last town militants occupied in Northern Iraq

ISIS militants are focused on brainwashing young boys to produce
the next generation of gun-toting jihadis, according to textbooks found
in the last town militants occupied in Northern Iraq.

Children's exercise books for practising handwriting and grammar
depicted faceless family units, showing Dad as an AK-47-wielding jihadi
and Mum wearing a veil.

Teaching children a warped version of what a normal family should
look like as soon as they were starting to read and write, Dad was
pictured as a stereotypical jihadi fighter, with a full beard, no
moustache, and a scarf wound around his head, holding a Kalashnikov with
magazine pouches strapped over his traditional robes.

Giving the images an even creepier feel, the faces of the ISIS
family unit were left as empty blank spaces, because the terror group
deems depictions of human or animal faces idolatrous.

Across Iraqi towns and villages under ISIS control, militants
blacked out faces on shopfronts, advertisements and even cartoon
characters painted on the the walls of schools.

The accompanying text reads: 'My father loves me and I love him. I love my mother and my (male) siblings.'

The deliberate exclusion of the feminine from the word 'siblings'
in Arabic is because ISIS devalues young women, an Arabic language
specialist in Baghdad told the Daily Mail.

The pages' sinister images defy the brightly coloured covers, some
of which show flower-filled gardens, town landscapes, or floating Arabic
letters, all crowned with the black flag of ISIS.

Iraq's Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) forces unearthed the
sinister tomes in ISIS' last stronghold in Northern Iraq, when combing
through the rubble of a school in a village on the outskirts of the town
of Hawija, controlled by the terror group for more than three years.

The most frightening book they discovered was a booklet for boys,
entitled Read, Understand and Apply, aimed at 11-year-olds and featuring
a range of lessons for young men of the Caliphate.

On the cover stands a boy with a Kalashnikov nearly the size of
himself slung over his shoulder, standing in what appears to be a
pink-hued forest of books. The boy holds aloft a copy of Read,
Understand and Apply, gazing up towards it, while celestial light pours
down from above.

Just seven pages in, the book features images of the three most
important lessons for any young boy growing up in the Caliphate to learn
- praying at the right times, being good to his parents, and fighting
jihad for the sake of Allah.

Accompanying photographs, all with the faces blurred out, show a
young boy dressed in jihadi attire, poised on one knee with a
Kalashnikov at the ready, receiving instruction from an elder, and with
hands folded in pious prayer.

Page 16 features an apparently regular section of the Read,
Understand and Apply series, entitled 'Heroes of the Caliphate'. The 'Hero'
in this edition is an Iraqi called Abdullah Al-Ansari whose
balaclava-clad image accompanying his story is not dissimilar to that of
Jihadi John.

'When we saw Abdullah for the first time, coming from Mosul to
Salahaddin to join his brothers and fight for the Caliphate, he did not
look like us.

'His beard was short and he looked like a normal guy,' the text reads. 'He
was not familiar with the sound of bullets or heavy weapons being
fired, and he had never seen a RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] before.'

Describing him as an impatient young man when he joined ISIS, it
was doubted that he had the dedication to persevere with the tough life
of a jihadi, but Abdullah surprised everyone by responding well to ISIS
teachings.

He was soon sent on a mission with two other Iraqis led by a
foreign fighter wearing a suicide vest, to attack an army position
manned by Shia Muslim soldiers. ISIS, which follows a strict
interpretation of Sunni Islam, views Shia Muslims as one of its foremost
enemies.

In dramatic and poetic language, the text describes the men's mission in heroic terms.

The jihadis crawled on their bellies towards the Iraqi Army
position to avoid detection but, as they drew near, soldiers spotted
them and opened fire, killing the foreign fighter. Abdullah tore the
suicide vest off his dead comrade and, donning it himself, crawled
towards a tank.

He detonated the vest under the tank, allegedly destroying it and
taking out several soldiers in the resulting explosion which, the text
says, blew his body into pieces.

Thanks to his suicide mission, the other two ISIS fighters were then able to flee and regale ISIS Emirs with Abdullah's story.

Reading the story, which ISIS students are instructed to memorise and recite, Iraqi soldier Ahmed, 26, burst out laughing.

'This is a ridiculous story because a car-bomb would struggle
to destroy a tank, let alone one man wearing a suicide belt. This is
just bull****,' he said. 'One suicide bomber would cause only
light surface damage to a tank, if any. This Abdullah guy just blew
himself up for nothing.'

Another page rejects conventional dental care and instructs the
reader that the only tooth-care needed is a twig from the Arak tree,
called a Miswak or Siwak.

A traditional method of teeth-cleaning across the Arab world, the
Miswak is said to have been favoured by the Prophet Mohammed, according
to the Hadith (Sayings of the Prophet).

With an illustration showing a child with long curly hair held back
by an ISIS headband, a whole page is dedicated to how best to practise
oral hygiene using a Miswak, reminding readers that cleanliness,
especially of the mouth, is pleasing to Allah.

Most of the ISIS books soldiers found near Hawija feature few, if
any, images, instead offering page after page of written teachings,
doctrine and instruction in ISIS ideologies and beliefs.

But occasionally a topic was deemed so crucial that a picture was
included to press home the point. In one book on everyday living
according to Islamic teachings, the single photo in the whole book shows
an overweight man lying prostrate beside a vast platter of food.

Accompanying text warns of the dangers of obesity, describing it as
a disease brought on by laziness and poor eating habits. 'Another cause
of this disease is gluttony and eating too much, especially sweets,
rice, pasta and potatoes,' according to the text.

One Iraqi soldier noted the irony of this. At the end of the battle
for Mosul, after a months-long siege had left civilians literally
starving to death, he said suspected ISIS fighters could often be
spotted by their healthy appearance and portly stomachs. They were the
only ones who had regular access to food in the last months of the Mosul
battle.

All the books, pamphlets and associated propaganda have been
gathered by members of the Hashd al-Shaabi force - which has played a
vital role in eradicating ISIS in Iraq - to avoid them falling into the
wrong hands, and for further investigation.

Understanding the inner workings of ISIS, those behind it and how
they brainwashed ISIS fighters, adherents and especially children, will
be crucial to de-radicalising Iraqi youth both now and in the future,
one member of the Hashd al-Shaabi told the Daily Mail.